Share Some Astronomical Trivia

[Knight of Clear Skies]

This could be fun and enlightening; I'm sure that between us we know all sorts of interesting astronomical snippets which aren't obvious, even to those who are well read in the subject. Here are a few I've picked up:

Stars are not spherical, all are flattened at the poles somewhat due to centrifugal forces caused by their rotation. In extreme cases, a star can be twice as long in one axis as another. Achernar - the ninth brightest star in the sky - is the least spherical star known, and looks something like this:

The surface gravity of a Neutron star is so strong that it is possible to see more than 50% of it's surface at one time, as light is bent from beyond its geometrical horizon to the observer.

Ignoring some minor environmental inconveniences, the best place in the solar system to go flying is Saturn's Moon Titan, due to its low gravity and thick atmosphere. A Human equipped with wings and flippers could easily carry themselves aloft.

Yep, that's right. On Titan, a man in a chicken suit really could fly.

Look forward to hearing yours.

[Luke]

Even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, temperatures can fall to -173°C (-280°F) on the side facing away from the Sun, as Mercury has almost no atmosphere to trap the heat.

[Ganymede12]

William Herschel died at the age of 84. Uranus, the planet he discovered, takes 84 years to complete an orbit.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Speaking of William Herschel, his was also a musician, the composer of 24 symphonies. He believed the Moon and Sun to be inhabited, and discovered infrared light.

[JamesM]

One of Herschel's many achievements was his discovery of the 'Garnet Star' (Mu Cephei) which is one of the Milkyway's largest red super giant stars. To give you some idea of its size, if the earth was the size of a ping pong ball, then by comparison Mu Cephei's diameter would be some 3.4 miles!

Lastly, light travels close to 186,300 miles per second which equates to slightly less than 6 trillion miles in a year. Did you know that it would take you around 150,000 years to count out this number of miles!

.......I think it's time for a lie down now.

James

[Knight of Clear Skies]

One final go at revising this thread - I was hoping to learn some new things which would be a jumping off point for more reading.

The universe is middle aged. The average rate of star formation is slowing, and it's estimated that 95% of the stars that will ever form already have.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

That should read "reviving" of course.

[Luke]

A 95-percent illuminated moon appears half as bright as a full moon

Believe it or not, the moon is half as bright as a full moon about 2.4 days before and after a full moon.

Source:

10 Things You Didn't Know About the Moon

[claire1985]

Can't think of anything to add at the moment but I'll be following this thread, love it so far

[LukeSkywatcher]

The ancient Greek name for the Moon was Selene. So when we talk about "the man in the moon", we really should be talking about "the woman in the moon".

[ian_j_kirk]

if you had a bath large enough to fit Saturn into, it would float

[claire1985]

if you had a bath large enough to fit Saturn into, it would float

I saw that sky at night too :-)

[Cath]

You can eat as much as you like in a zero-G environment, you never put weight on.

[Qualia]

When my girlfriend came along for a little peek through the EP one night, she noted how the object was moving faster than ever expected. "I guess it's because we're spinning at over 1,500km an hour," I said. "Hurtling through space at about 100,000 km an hour."

It always blows me away just gazing at galaxies. The other week as I had a peek at M 104, I knew that at that moment the light I was receiving had left that galaxy before the advent of the human race, around the time proto-monkeys and apes were beginning to climb down from their trees.

The Moon could easily slip through Cassini's Division.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

A 95-percent illuminated moon appears half as bright as a full moon

Never would have guessed that, just goes to show how easily the eye is fooled. Is this due to the heiligenschein effect? The dust on the lunar surface tend to reflect most incident light back towards the source rather than scattering it widely. When the Moon if full, the Sun is illuminating it from almost directly behind the Earth.

You can eat as much as you like in a zero-G environment, you never put weight on.

Is that the "1 hot weight-loss tip" all these website ads keep spamming me with?

[Cath]

Is that the "1 hot weight-loss tip" all these website ads keep spamming me with?

lol

Chris Cassidy (one of the current ISS crew members) mentioned this little fact the other day on one of the NASA live broadcast.

[Champagnerocker]

Speaking of William Herschel, ...

His comet hunting sister Caroline Herschel was the first woman to receive a salary for scientific work, £50 pa from George III.

[phil848]

Not so much astro but space related this one..for those of you who are a tad younger, Skylab was an American space station during the 70`S and used Saturn V rockets to deploy astronauts and Apollo technology. infact the Skylabs main body was the 3rd stage of a Saturn V rocket...but interestingly it was where the first space strike took place....needless to say these Astronauts never flew to sapce again.

Long work periods and seemingly endless lists of tasks took their toll on the rookie astronauts. The crew found themselves exhausted, falling badly behind schedule. NASA was pushing them too hard, they said, and they couldn’t keep working such long hours. Ground crews in mission control disagreed. They felt that the astronauts were complaining needlessly, that they should be working through their meal times and rest days to catch up. About six weeks into the flight, a few days before New Year's Eve, the Skylab 4 crew hit their breaking point. They announced an unscheduled day off, turned off the communications radio, and got some rest. They reportedly spent the day relaxing, taking in the stunning views of the Earth from orbit. Finally, at the end of December, Carr had a talk with Mission Control. Crews in orbit and on the ground eventually reached a compromise. Routine chores would be placed on a ”shopping list” and the crew could complete these items when they had time and felt up to it. Houston also agreed to leave the astronauts alone during meal times, designated rest periods, and in the evenings after dinner^[5]. This is the first known workers strike in outer space, and created the basis for how astronauts should be treated today.

[MrPloppy]

If Betelgeuse was positioned in our solar system in place of our sun, it's surface would be at Jupiter's orbit. Recently it has been shedding an external shell which reaches out to what would be Neptune's orbit.

[martin_h]

The Milky Way Galaxy is rotating at about 270 kilometers per second (168 miles/second), which translates to 970,000 kilometers/hr ( 600,000 miles per hour).

This rate of rotation means that the Solar System – which is 28,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way – completely orbits the galaxy about every 225 million years. The last time we were in the same place in our orbit, dinosaurs were just starting to appear on the Earth.

[TheMightyKong]

There is a 95% probability of there being no Klingons off the starboard bow, with an uncertainty of + or - 5%.

Sorry.

[Paul M]

In the early days of the dinosaurs the day was considerably shorter and the moon closer and therefore apparently larger in the sky.

Tidal interactions of the earth moon system are causing earth to lose angular momentum (rotational energy) to the moon so increasing its orbital velocity. This counterintuitively increases its distance from earth and therefore reduces its apparent size.

As the moon continues to spiral away from earth there will eventually be a last ever total solar eclipse. After then the moon will be too distant to ever again cover the sun completely.

And our day will continue to lengthen.

Sent from my ZT ICS using Tapatalk HD

[Helen]

The Sun's poles switch polarity at roughly 11 year intervals, but the north and south poles don't necessarily switch at the same time, so they can both have the same polarity for a while.

Helen

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Jupiter is about as big as a planet (of its temperature) can be. Adding more mass would shrink it, as the increase in gravity would compress its gaseous atmosphere further.

(So called "hot Jupiters" - gas giants orbiting close to their parent stars - are larger, because their high temperatures expand their atmospheres.)

[mdstuart]

How about a trivia question for you all.

Which star will be the brightest in the sky several million years from now?

hint..it is overhead in July and 150 light years away at the moment.

mark